Facebook's IPO attracted all kinds of investors--then they lost big when the hype died. Beth has three things every woman can learn from the insanity that will make money in the stock market.

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SAFETY TRUMPS POPULARITY. Don't let the PR surrounding Initial Public Offerings, or IPOs, tempt you into investing in individual stocks: It puts your nest egg into one potentially risky basket. Instead, funnel your dough into an index fund, like the S&P 500, which tracks the performance of a large group of stocks. Try Vanguard or Charles Schwab for index funds with low fees--way under 1 percent.

TRENDY STOCKS WILL COST YOU. Although it may seem exciting to buy a newly issued stock, it's often a losing bet. Eager investors sunk $82.5 million into Pets.com when it went public in 2000, only to see the pet-supply site shut down months later. And unless you're an insider, your chance of winning is slim: IPOs usually give friends and family members a chance to buy in at a lower price than later investors, so your portfolio is more likely to take a bigger hit if the stock turns out to be a dud.

STAY THE COURSE. Constantly buying and selling stocks is a good way to lose money, because transaction costs will eat at your gains. Instead, know this: Studies repeatedly have found that women earn more in the market, precisely because we take fewer crazy chances--one found that men make 45 percent more trades than women every year but wind up earning about 1 percent less. Yeah, maybe there's less of a short-term thrill, but won't a bigger fortune be better in the end?

REDBOOK's money expert, Beth Kobliner, is the author of Get a Financial Life and is on the President's Advisory Council on Financial Capability.